Understanding Kubernetes EmptyDir

This Kubernetes EmptyDir blog post will help you understand how EmptyDir works in Kubernetes and in which scenarios you should use it.

The problem of disk space wasting has been addressed. Kubernetes EmptyDir is a local directory that shares its storage volume with one or more containers for the goal of data sharing. Although it can be mounted on a hostPath volume or an Inline Volume, it cannot be used as a Persistent Volume Claim (PVC).

The command-line tool for Kubernetes, kubectl, can be used to generate an empty directory in a Kubernetes deployment. In a Kubernetes deployment, the EmptyDir option may be used to store data across multiple containers. The usefulness of this feature extends into development and testing environments.

EmptyDir for Kubernetes is only compatible with Linux-based hosts because it makes use of the host file system. Because EmptyDir utilizes the Linux mount command to create shared directories across containers in a Kubernetes deployment, it will not function on Windows-based clusters.

During a staging or QA environment when many container connections are possible, the empty-dir option in kubectl may be used for testing or development purposes. Kubernetes EmptyDir can be mounted on a hostPath or an Inline Volume. Although Kubernetes EmptyDir cannot be used as a PVC storage.

When Kubernetes EmptyDir is mounted to a hostPath volume, Kubernetes EmptyDir can be used as part of the Kubernetes Pod specification. However, there are limitations because it cannot yet function with provisioning tools like Terraform or CloudFormation.